The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.

From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."

Friday, June 3, 2016

The White House Spin, J Street, and Iran - Michael Curtis

by Michael Curtis

Ploughshares indeed faithfully obeyed the spin
and the message that Rhodes disseminated.

In
an astonishingly arrogant remark, Ben Rhodes, the spin doctor of the
White House, confessed to misleading the American people, media, and
nongovernmental organizations about the seven-nation negotiations with
Iran in 2015 purportedly to stop Iran’s nuclear development. He boasted
of creating an “echo chamber,” and using “outside groups like
Ploughshares “to help carry out the Obama administration message. To
their disgrace, those groups then said things in public that validated
the misleading information that Rhodes and other White House officials
had given them to say.

Now
we have the newly-published document of the non-profit Ploughshares
Fund (PF) whose stated objective, like all non-lunatics, is to help make
the world more safe and secure. The Fund states that it does this by
funding organizations and people who promote the elimination of nuclear
weapons, who are devoted to prevent the emergence of new nuclear states,
and to build regional peace. All these activities are worthy, but what
the Annual Report 2015 of the Fund did not say or want to know is that
it had been manipulated by the Obama administration for propaganda
purposes.

Some
news organizations, such as the Associated Press, have rules concerning
funds they accept and are concerned to uphold journalistic integrity.
Ploughshares Fund does not appear to be one of them, as Rhodes implied
in his reference to it. Ploughshares indeed faithfully obeyed the spin
and the message that he disseminated.

The
PF 2015 Report detailed the organizations and groups it funded to carry
out the Obama administration message, and reveals their subservience to
the message. It is worth looking at a few of them.

Some
are surprising but others are not. Not everyone will agree that
National Public Radio is always objective in its reporting. Not
surprisingly, NPR, which receives a small amount from Congress, has
since 2005 received $700,000 from Ploughshares (PF) to cover national
security issues. In 2015 for the propaganda campaign concerning Iran,
NPR received $100,000 from PF. In this PF is less than forthright. It
stated that “funding does not influence the editorial content of their
coverage in any way, nor would we want it to.” The facts speak
otherwise. NPR hosted supporters of the deal, including Rep. Adam Schiff
of California and Joseph Cirincione, president of PF, who was invited
at least twice, but it refused to invite Rep. Mike Pompeo of Kansas, a
critic of Iran’s nuclear program., who had several times requested an
appearance on radio.

Some
recipients of the grants seem understandable, other seem bizarre.
Included among the recipients of funding are the Arms Control
Association, which received 4 grants amounting to $282,500, and the
Atlantic Council that got $182,000. The National Iranian American
Council got five grants amounting to $281,211, perhaps because one
member of the PF board, the actor Farshad Farahat, is also a director of
the NIAC. One of the more surprising and inexplicable was the National
Committee on North Korea that got $50,000.

Academic
institutions and think tanks were helped. The Brookings Institution in
D.C. got 3 grants amounting to 225,000, and Princeton University
received $70,000 to support Seyed Hossein Mousavian, former Iranian
ambassador, for his books and activities involved with the negotiated
settlement of Iran’s nuclear program.

The
single largest grant went to J Street, the leftist or liberal Jewish
political action group, “pro-Israel, pro-peace,” which got six grants
amounting to $576,500. These were awarded to support J Street’s media
and education campaign to continue diplomatic engagement with Iran, to
demonstrate the benefits of the negotiated settlement with Iran, and to
mobilize Jewish support for a final deal. J Street in effect accepted
the spinning of the White House. Among J Street’s activity was on July
23, 2015 a full page ad in the New York Times praising the diplomatic solution and calling on Congress not to sabotage the Iran nuclear agreement.

The
Ploughshares Fund prides itself in general that its approach to
reducing nuclear weapons and other global security threats is unique and
effective. With this in mind, it is not clear why Valerie Plame, the
central figure in the political storm in 2003 over the leaking of her
alleged identity as a CIA covert officer, is on the board.

In
particular, PF claimed that the Iran coalition it created was one of
the most effective collaborative efforts in many decades.

The
chair of the board Mary Lloyd Estrin, also a director of the General
Service Foundation, enthused about the absolutely critical role that
civil society and the PF played in tipping the scales in the promotion
of a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear weapons threat. She also
spoke of the “fearless leadership of Obama administration and
supporters in Congress”. Can one detect in her words a fundamental
worldwide conspiracy against the leadership that PF stopped?

The
PF and its associates regard the Iran Agreement as a major victory for
U.S. national security. To this end, the PF provided a network
organizations and individuals in common effort These included pooling
ideas, sharing information, deciding strategies, and accepting the
misleading statements of the Obama administration.

J
Street, usually critical of Israeli policies, sought to disarm
criticism of its acceptance of the White House spin by asserting that it
worked to advance the deal out of the belief that the important
agreement contributed greatly to Israeli security, and that it blocked
Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon for some years.

But
that is not necessarily true. It is possible that the path of Iran to
nuclear weapons may be limited for a short time with closer
international inspection. It is equally possible that the deal may lead
to better relations between the U.S. and Iran.

But
already the U.S. Government Accountability Office in a report in
February 2016 suggests that the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) may have problems in monitoring and verifying Iran’s
implementation of the nuclear deal, regarding nuclear materials and
activities. Iran in the past has failed to notify the IAEA of some of
its activity.

Observers
may legitimately differ about Iran’s adherence to the nuclear
agreement, but there can be no disagreement about Iran’s continuing
provocative behavior. Iran’s missile program is proceeding with full
support from its leaders, and its ambition to become the hegemonic power
in the Middle East is clear, especially to Saudi Arabia. The PF group,
in its obeisance to White House spin, have neglected the reality that
Iran is a dangerous power. This is shown by its missile launches and
testing of ballistic missiles, its support for the Assad regime in
Syria, its support of Hizb’allah, its involvement in Yemen, and its
detention of U.S. sailors.

In
the bible, Isaiah 2:4, says “they shall beat their swords into
ploughshares.” Ploughshares Fund by its acceptance of misleading
official propaganda and its funding of organizations not usually
regarded as advocates of peace in the Middle East nor concerned with the
security of Israel has not been helpful in turning Iranian “spears into
pruning hooks.”